Yolanda survivors join evacuation drill for storm surge

Nearly 5 years after super typhoon Yolanda ripped through the Visayas, female survivors in this coastal town on Saturday joined a drill on storm surge evacuation and a demo on solar power, Saturday.

Among the participants was 65-year-old Violeta De Leon, who took clothes, bottled water and a flashlight as she and her neighbors scampered to an evacuation center.

At the shelter, the women treated residents on stretchers who pretended to be injured.

The drill was organized by scholars of the Institute For Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), who survived Yolanda's onslaught, which wiped out entire communities with giant waves, and left 7,500 dead or missing in 2013.

The ICSC distributed portable solar energy devices to the participants while its scholars showed how these can be used to charge cellphones and power nebulizers.

"We want to prove that technology and solar energy are not just for men or the rich. These can be operated by the women, too," ISCS outreach officer Orlando Quesada said in the local dialect.

Saturday's training comes ahead of the expected landfall of typhoon Rosita in northern Luzon on Tuesday.

The typhoon is expected to dump rains over large parts of the country ahead of All Saints' Day, state weather bureau PAGASA said.